All of the bad news that keeps coming out of Brazil is good news for the company paying billions to the IOC to televise the Olympics in the United States. Every time problems in the host country garner attention _ and that’s been happening plenty often in the months before this summer’s Rio Games _ it’s free advertising for NBC’s coverage in August.

And in this day and age, at least, there’s almost no sort of bad news that would turn off potential viewers. If anything, the opposite is true.

“In our voyeuristic society _ as borne out by the variety of unscripted shows and the way news is covered and the way social media works _ for the most part all of this brings more interest to see what’s going to happen,” NBC Sports Group Chair Mark Lazarus told The Associated Press recently.

Not that he wishes any ill will on host countries, of course. But it’s impossible to ignore that anything that shines a spotlight on the upcoming Olympics also happens to remind Americans that the Summer Games are approaching _ and piques their interest in watching.

NBC’s research has shown that viewers’ awareness that an Olympics is nearing and their plans to tune in are higher at this point of the year than they were for the London Games four years ago, which drew excellent ratings.

“It has clearly brought an awareness and interest in seeing what’s going on down there that’s good for us,” Lazarus said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Relatives of Jesse Owens and America's 17 other black athletes from the 1936 Olympics were welcomed to the White House on Thursday by President Barack Obama for the acknowledgement they didn't receive along with their white counterparts 80 years ago.

Along with the relatives of the 1936 African-American Olympians, gloved-fist protesters Tommie Smith and John Carlos and members of the 2016 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams met the president and first lady Michelle Obama. Obama congratulated the Rio athletes, thanked Smith and Carlos for waking up Americans in 1968 and praised 1936 Olympians who made a statement in front of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

TOKYO (AP) — An expert panel set up by Tokyo's newly elected governor says the price tag of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics could exceed $30 billion unless drastic cost-cutting measures are taken. That's more than a four-fold increase from the initial estimate at the time Tokyo was awarded the games in 2013.